The St. Paul Conspiracy

by Roger Stelljes

  As they finally left, Mac asked. “How come you kept that going?”

  “Just trying to get you laid. She was attractive as hell and ready to be had,” Lich said, smiling. “Hell, she was throwing herself at you. They know nothing about the case. You should stop back and get yourself a little.”

  Mac appreciated Lich’s concern. He wasn’t the first one to make the comment in the last few months. It had been awhile. His buddies kept telling him he needed to “Get back on the horse.”

  In the next unit, they found a couple of William Mitchell law students. They had ignored Halloween altogether, having studied until 10:00 p.m. at the law school. Then they came home, had a beer and hit the rack around 11:45, after watching Letterman. They hadn’t seen anything and didn’t even know that Daniels lived so close.

  Lich and Mac moved onto the last unit, which was on the third floor along the front of the building. They knocked on the door a couple of times. No answer. Mac slipped a business card under the door with a note to please call him. He and Lich turned to leave, were ten feet down the hall when they heard the chain unhook and the deadbolt turn open. They turned to walk back as a Hispanic man who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties opened the door. “What can I do for you?”

  “St. Paul detectives,” Mac replied as he and Lich flashed their identifications. “What’s your name, sir?”

  “Juan Hernandez. What’s going on?”

  “There was a murder in the neighborhood, and we’re wondering if you knew anything about it?”

  “No kidding? Where?”

  “It was across the street, in one of the condos on St. Albans. The victim was Claire Daniels-you know, the reporter from Channel 6. We’re asking everyone who lives in the neighborhood if they saw anything,” said Lich. “And by the way, can we step inside?”

  “Oh, sure.”

  Mac, Lich, and Hernandez stepped inside his apartment into the living room, which was sparsely furnished with a couch, chair, coffee table, and TV. There were few if any personal furnishings displayed. Lich, looking around, asked, “Just move in?”

  “Yeah, just a few days ago,” Hernandez replied. “When did it happen, the murder?”

  “We think last night?”

  “Oh, my.” Hernandez replied, putting his hand to his chest. “What time?”

  “We’re not sure,” Lich lied.

  “Hmpf.” Hernandez walked over towards the porch looking out onto Summit Avenue. “Is her place the last condo on the end?”

  The way he said it caused Mac and Lich to share a look. This guy was leading somewhere. “Yes. Why do you ask?” Mac inquired.

  “Well. I was having trouble sleeping last night, so I went out for a walk around 12:30 a.m. Thought maybe the fresh air would clear my head. So, anyway, I was walking up St. Albans and ran into someone in the street.”

  “Who was that?” Mac asked neutrally.

  Hernandez hesitated. “You guys probably won’t believe this.”

  “Give it a shot,” Lich said.

  “Mason Johnson,” Hernandez blurted.

  That got their attention. “What? Mason Johnson? Senator Mason Johnson?” Mac replied, disbelieving, his heart skipping a beat.

  “Oh, yes, I’m sure,” Hernandez replied confidently.

  Mac shared a quick look with Lich that said, Oh, boy, the case might have just gone nuclear. “What time?” Mac continued.

  “It was 1:30.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Oh, yes. I thought it odd to see him so late like that on the street, so I looked at my watch. It was 1:30.”

  “Where did you see him on the street?” Lich asked.

  “He was coming down the steps of the condo, and he turned and walked right by me on the sidewalk. I even said hello to him, and he said hi back,” Hernandez said, remaining self-assured. “I don’t think he expected to see anyone on the street at that hour. He kind of ducked his head when he saw me coming. But he said hello, walked by me and got into his car.”

  “What kind of car?” Lich asked.

  “Lexus, I think, white. He’d parked it down the street a ways. I kind of turned to watch him after he went past me. He got in the car and drove away. I remember thinking it was the darndest thing to have seen him on the street like that.”

  “Mr. Hernandez, you’re sure?” Lich asked, a little unbelieving.

  “Oh, yes. It was him. He’s on TV a lot. You couldn’t help but recognize him. I mean, he’s a pretty recognizable guy. You say Claire Daniels lived in that condo huh?”

  “Yes, sir.” Mac replied.

  “Kinda late to be leaving there.” Hernandez stopped for a second and put his finger to his mouth, and then quietly said, “Hmmm. I thought the senator was married.”

  Mac was thinking the same thing and gave Lich another quick look, “Mr. Hernandez, we need you to come downtown and give us a statement.” Viper was parked on the north side of Summit Avenue, across the street from McRyan’s Explorer. That had been mere serendipity, as they were parked there when McRyan arrived in the late afternoon. They tried to move the van around all day, never parking in the same spot for too long. They had even changed vans around noon, from the dark blue one to white. It wasn’t unheard of that a murderer would be watching the police work at the crime scene and get noticed. Viper wanted none of that, so they changed vans and locations throughout the day.

  Viper wanted to make sure the crime scene developed as planned. If the police investigated properly, they would find what Viper wanted them to find. He’d checked on McRyan, and the word was he was a good young cop. So far, so good, as the young detective and his tubby partner were following the trail of breadcrumbs he had left behind.

  As he rubbed his eyes and yawned for what seemed like the hundredth time, he heard one of his crew exclaim, “Beautiful.” Viper knew what that meant. He moved over to the window and saw McRyan and his partner approaching the Explorer, along with a Hispanic male.

  “Well that didn’t take long,” remarked Viper, a smile creasing his tired face.

  Chapter Six

  “Ever heard of Chappaquiddick?”

  While Lich was taking Hernandez’s statement, Mac made a call to Linda Morgan for an update. The Daniels case had been on the fast track, everything else, other than the case of the serial killer, was pushed aside. Morgan confirmed that the cause of Claire Daniels’ death was suffocation by strangulation. While measuring time of death was a tricky thing, they had been able to narrow it down to between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m. She’d had sex, but there was no vaginal tearing. Rape was not indicated. They would be able to get DNA from the semen, but it would take a little time. They had prints from the scene, which had yet to be matched. That may quickly change, Mac thought.

  “When will the autopsy be done? When can I have the official results?” Mac asked.

  “Tomorrow morning.”

  “Anything else? I’m on my way to meet with the chief.”

  “Nope. We’ll have the autopsy done and the results to you in the morning. Any ideas on who might match the semen or prints?”

  Mac thought for a moment, he’d have to run things by the chief and Captain Peters first, “I might have something for you on that later.”

  “Who?”

  “Can’t tell you yet. I gotta run that one by the powers that be. All I’ll say is, it could be tricky.”

  Mac could hear the excitement in Linda’s voice, “Let me know as soon as you can, okay? It’d be really great to clear this one. Get the media off our asses.”

  “That it would.” Mac hung up on Linda and shuffled over to a pay phone, flipping the White Pages open to the government listings. He found the number for Senator Johnson’s office. A staffer told Mac that the senator had been in town until this morning. Last night he had been at a fund raiser in downtown Minneapolis that ended sometime around 10:30 p.m. The senator had been in town. Hernandez seemed legit.

  Just then Clark and Green came down the hallway with a man in a red c
ardigan sweater with glasses hanging on a string around his neck. Green stopped while Clark took the man into an interview room. Green had an excited look.

  “Who’s that?” Mac asked.

  “Daniels’ neighbor, guy named John Chase. You’ll never guess who he saw leaving Daniels’ place two nights ago.”

  “Mason Johnson.”

  Green went blank. “How… how the hell did you know?”

  Mac related the discovery of Hernandez having seen Johnson leaving the night before. Lich approached and Mac filled him in on Chase. Lich had checked with Motor Vehicle Records. The senator had a white Lexus with Minnesota plates. It was registered under Gwen Johnson, his wife, with an apartment address at Galtier Plaza in downtown St. Paul. Mac mentioned his conversation with Morgan and that he had confirmed that the senator had been in town.

  “Mac, boy, seems like we got ourselves a prime suspect,” said Lich, pulling up his trousers and popping on the balls of his feet.

  “We’ll see.”

  “We’ll see, my ass. Don’t look a potential gift horse in the mouth.”

  “Well, let’s go tell the chief about our prime suspect and ruin his night,” Mac said.

  With Hernandez’s statement in hand, Mac and Lich headed up to the chief’s office. This would be an interesting meeting. It would include the Chief, Captain Peters, Sylvia Miller, as well as District Attorney Helen Anderson. Mac had to chuckle, for as much as Chief Flanagan loathed the cameras, Anderson loved them. Anderson was something of a publicity hound. While an assistant district attorney would handle the case, the high profile guaranteed Anderson’s involvement. She was more a politician than attorney and held hardly concealed aspirations for higher office. She would love the exposure this case would bring, especially if it involved a sitting United States senator from the opposing Republican Party nonetheless. Take down a powerful Republican-now that was the way to rise in the Democratic Party.

  Lich, as usual, was lighthearted about the situation, “This should be a circus if the D.A.’s involved, especially when you drop the senator on them.”

  Mac agreed. “Yeah, she’ll want the spotlight.”

  “She’ll pee her pants.”

  It was 6:30 p.m., and while it was chaotic in the rest of the Public Safety Building, it was quiet around the chief’s office as most of the support staff had left for the day. Mac knocked on the door, heard a “Come,” and they walked in.

  The Department of Public Safety Building was a city government building and, therefore, alcohol and smoke free. So naturally the chief had a lit cigar in his mouth and had taken his bottle of Irish whiskey out, with himself, Captain Peters, and even the D.A. having a touch. There was also a woman in a blue suit sitting with her legs crossed on the couch. She had red hair pinned back in a swirl, stylish dark-rimmed glasses, and what looked like a nice pair of legs sticking out from her skirt. She too had a drink in her hand. For some reason, she looked familiar to Mac, but he wasn’t sure where he had seen her. Flanagan was digging in his desk drawer. He looked up as Mac and Lich entered and stood with two drink glasses in his hand, “Hello, boys. May I offer you a libation?”

  Lich readily agreed. After a moment’s hesitation, Mac decided, what the heck, he was done for the day and heading to the bar afterwards anyway. Besides, a drink would help him break the news.

  Once everyone had a fresh drink, the chief made the introductions. “As you boys know, that’s District Attorney Anderson.” He waved towards the couch with his drink, “The young lady over on the couch is Assistant District Attorney Sally Kennedy. Looks like you boys’ll be working with her on the case once you have a suspect.”

  Mac and Lich shook Kennedy’s hand. Mac exchanged a look with her, something familiar. The chief then prodded Mac. “Go.”

  “Well,” Mac started, “we may have a pretty good lead.”

  “Do tell,” the chief replied lightly.

  “Well, it could be…” Mac grimaced, “…difficult.”

  “Spit it out,” Peters interjected.

  Mac exhaled, “We got a witness who saw Senator Mason Johnson leaving Daniels’ place last night at 1:30 a.m. and another witness who saw him leave around the same time two nights ago. You put that with time of death between 1:00 and 2:00 a.m., and he starts looking pretty good for this.”

  Silence. The chief pinched the bridge of his nose, and Peters’ mouth was agape. Everyone else had a look of disbelief on their face. After a minute, Anderson broke the quiet. “Whoa.”

  “Yeah,” the chief added. “Mac, you better start from the beginning.”

  “Yes, sir.” Mac related what Hernandez told them. He added in Chase and the other information regarding the senator’s car and the fact he was in town last night. Then he went into what he’d learned from Linda Morgan. They had prints from the scene that were different from Daniels’. They had yet to be matched. But they also had semen from which they would be able to get DNA.

  That caused Captain Peters to let out a long whistle. “Son, you’re telling me we’ll get DNA from the semen?”

  “That’s what Morgan says.”

  “And prints?” the chief added.

  “Yes,” Mac replied. “We’ll need to see if we can access the senator’s prints. I would assume that, as a federal employee, they are on file somewhere.”

  “They are,” replied Anderson. “We can go to work on that if you’d like, chief.”

  “I think we’ll need that, Helen.” Then to Mac, “Seems like your case is moving quickly in a certain direction.”

  “At this point, yes. We’ll have to see the final autopsy report and think about how we’ll go about testing the senator’s DNA.”

  “I don’t get it,” said Peters, “I mean, I’ve spent enough time around politicians. They always leave themselves a way out. What, he kills her and then just gets on a plane, heads to Washington and acts as if nothing happened?”

  “Ever heard of Chappaquiddick?” That caused a chuckle, and Mac turned his head to look at Kennedy, who was smiling herself.

  “She has a point,” said Mac, picking up on the line of thought. “Think this one out a little, it’s not that hard. Senator’s married. Maybe Claire says something about his wife. Asks, or better yet, demands that he get a divorce. He says no. She says, ‘If you don’t tell your wife, I will.’” Mac took a sip and continued, “Senator gets upset, says she can’t tell his wife. It’d ruin his career or at least do it a lot of damage. He just wants something on the side.”

  “He’s a senator. It’s not unheard of,” Lich added.

  “Yeah,” Mac replied, going on, “But Claire Daniels isn’t a woman to put up with that. She’s assertive, says she’ll do what she wants. They argue. It gets physical on the bed, gets out of hand. He grabs her around the throat. Can’t stop himself and strangles her.”

  “Yeah,” Kennedy replied, thinking along with him, “Something like that could have happened. He’s killed her. He panics. He can’t call the police. He can’t be seen with her. He’s got to get out of there and as far away as fast as he can.”

  Mac finished, “So, he goes home, composes himself and heads to Washington, acting like nothing happened.”

  “Crime of passion?” offered Lich.

  “Manslaughter” said Mac, nodding his head agreeably.

  “You bet, detective.” Kennedy took a long swallow of her whiskey, leaned back into the couch and casually said, “He doesn’t go there with any intent of killing her. He wants to get laid, nothing more. Daniels, as you said, is getting sick of being his bed sheet.”

  She was blunt, thought Mac.

  “So she says it’s either his wife or her. They argue, it gets physical, and before you know it, she’s dead.”

  “Only one fly in the senator’s ointment” added Mac.

  “Yup,” said Kennedy, now looking right at Mac with a little smile on her face, a nice smile, he thought, “Juan Hernandez coming down the sidewalk. Bet he didn’t count on that.”

  “No, coun
selor, he didn’t. Hernandez puts him at the scene at the time of Daniel’s death.”

  “But he’s gone too far down the path now. The senator can’t go back, so he has to keep going. Gets on the plane. Gets back to Washington. Hopes the guy didn’t recognize him. Maybe you and Lich don’t find him.”

  “And you know what?” It was the chief now, making sure Mac and Kennedy didn’t monopolize the whole conversation, “if he were some average Joe, he probably wouldn’t have been noticed.”

  Mac jumped back in, “But he’s not. We got Hernandez putting him there last night and the neighbor a couple of nights ago.”

  “And we have samples of DNA and a print that, if they match the senator-” Lich started.

  “He’s nailed,” Peters finished.

  “I don’t know about nailed,” Kennedy replied, putting on the breaks. “We’re not even twelve hours into this thing. And we’re speculating here. There might be any number of ways this thing could go. But if we get DNA and print matches, it will be pretty tough-”

  “-To create reasonable doubt,” said Mac, finishing Kennedy’s thought. “But…”

  “…What?” Kennedy asked.

  “I keep thinking about what the captain said. I’m having a hard time believing Johnson did this. He’s too smart. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Politicians aren’t any smarter than anyone else, and in some ways they’re dumber,” the chief replied, “No offense, Helen.”

  “None taken,” though her look said otherwise.

  “Can we leak anything to the media? That we have a lead, a suspect, anything?” asked Miller, pleading, looking weary.

  The chief picked up on Miller’s tone, “I sympathize, but not yet. It shouldn’t be long, but we have to wait.” Flanagan, moving back to the topic at hand, asked Mac, “When will we have the autopsy results?”